«In the last twenty years, California made 850,000 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and half a million arrests in the last ten years. The people arrested were disproportionately African Americans and Latinos, overwhelmingly young people, especially young men.»

«According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, there were an estimated 1,663,582 arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States during 2009. Of these drug abuse violation arrests, 6.0% were for the sale/manufacture of marijuana and 45.6% were for marijuana possession.»

«Most people arrested for marijuana possession were not smoking in public; most simply had a small amount of marijuana in their pocket, purse or bag. Possessing a small amount of marijuana in one’s pocket or bag is a legal violation, not a criminal offense. But quite often, when police stop and question a person, they say «empty your pockets» or «open your bag.» Many people comply with the officer’s request. If a person pulls marijuana from their pocket or bag, it makes the marijuana «open to public view,» a crime. The police then arrest the person for this misdemeanor.»

«In 2009, the NYPD stopped and questioned over 575,000 people – 84% of them people of color.»

«Most people arrested for marijuana possession offenses are handcuffed, placed in a police car, taken to a police station, fingerprinted and photographed, held in jail for 24 hours or more and then arraigned before a judge. Almost 70 percent of those arrested are younger than 30 years old. 86 percent of those arrested are Black or Latino, even though research consistently shows that young whites use marijuana at higher rates.»

«This is not a War on Drugs – it’s a War on People» sier Jack A. Cole, tidligere politisjef og undercoveragent, fra LEAP. Film: Anita Nyholt.

Drug Policy Alliance: «The NAACP passed a resolution to support the bill in Congress that would end marijuana prohibition at the federal level! The momentum of marijuana law reform continues to build!!»

«A bipartisan bill advocating for states rights on marijuana appears to have one more big supporter in its corner.

Marijuana Majority said Saturday in an email that the NAACP’s Board of Directors passed a resolution last month in support of H.R. 1523 — the Respect States Marijuana Laws Act. Introduced in April by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the legislation is designed to protect both medical and recreational pot users from federal prosecution for following state laws.» http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/09/marijuana-naacp_n_4246693.html

The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don ’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

NAACP:
«Fifty years ago, civil rights activists from across the United States gathered in Washington D.C., for one of the most momentous events of the 20th century. They marched and rallied around a shared message of civil liberty, civil rights, and economic opportunity for all.

Become an NAACP virtual marcher by lending your voice to the 50th Anniversary March on Washington. Support our efforts to continue fighting for civil rights and human rights for all.» http://www.naacp.org/march#join-the-movement

Although New York decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana in 1977, the “public view” exception to the law continues to allow police to continue to arrest people — mostly young minorities — in record numbers for simple marijuana possession.

The practice, which has drawn criticism to the New York Police Department and earned the Big Apple a reputation as the “Pot Bust Capital of the World,” involves police officers telling a suspect to empty their pockets, thus bringing the marijuana into “public view” — an arrestable offense.

The bill proposes a marijuana tax of $50 per ounce, of which 80% would go to the state’s general fund, with the rest earmarked for substance abuse, criminal re-entry and job training programs.

Cities and towns would be given the option of imposing an additional 5% tax on marijuana sales in their community, or banning retail sales of marijuana entirely.

The bill would also contain provisions preventing the operation of motor vehicles under the influence of marijuana.

Under New York state law, the private possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana is a non-criminal civil citation, punishable by a $100 fine, but the possession of any amount of cannabis in public view remains a criminal misdemeanor.

The United States is one of the world’s strictest nations when it comes to denying the right to vote to citizens convicted of crimes.

A remarkable 5.85 million Americans are forbidden to vote because of “felon disenfranchisement,” or laws restricting voting rights for those convicted of felony-level crimes.

In this election year, the question of voting restrictions is once again receiving great public attention. This report is intended to update and expand our previous work on the scope and distribution of felon disenfranchisement in the United States (see Uggen and Manza 2002; Manza and Uggen 2006). The numbers presented here represent our best assessment of the state of felon disenfranchisement as of December 31, 2010, the most recent year for which complete data are available.

Key findings include the following:

Approximately 2.5 percent of the total U.S. voting age population – 1 of every 40 adults – is disenfranchised due to a current or previous felony conviction.

Ex-felons in the eleven states that disenfranchise people after they have completed their sentences make up about 45 percent of the entire disenfranchised population, totaling over 2.6 million people.

The number of people disenfranchised due to a felony conviction has escalated dramatically in recent decades as the population under criminal justice supervision has increased. There were an estimated 1.17 million people disenfranchised in 1976, 3.34 million in 1996, and over 5.85 million in 2010.

Rates of disenfranchisement vary dramatically by state due to broad variations in voting prohibitions. In six states – Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia – more than 7 percent of the adult population is disenfranchised.

1 of every 13 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate more than four times greater than non-African Americans. Nearly 7.7 percent of the adult African American population is disenfranchised compared to 1.8 percent of the non-African American population.

African American disenfranchisement rates also vary significantly by state. In three states – Florida (23 percent), Kentucky (22 percent), and Virginia (20 percent) – more than one in five African Americans is disenfranchised.